[Reader-list] "Making a difference"

[Kshmendra Kaul]

"Making a difference" 

By Aroosa Masroor
 
Monday, 23 Nov, 2009
 
Just a few minutes into a conversation with 21-year-old Maham Ali and it becomes apparent that she’s not an ordinary Pakistani citizen, indifferent to the many crises plaguing her country. Unlike most, Maham does not just sit back and complain or fret. She chooses to rise to the occasion and actually make a difference in these troubling times.
 
Maham’s recent initiative to raise funds for the family of a poor Christian janitor, who lost his life in the International Islamic University blast in Islamabad a month ago, has won the praise of many. With the help of SMS text messages and the internet, she single-handedly raised a sum of Rs 52,500 for Pervaiz Masih’s family. 

‘I think it was the thought of a suicide bomber striking an educational campus that got to me. Initially, I was terrified since I have friends studying there, but later I realised that out of all that chaos and tragedy, a hero had emerged: Pervaiz Masih.’

Masih saved the lives of hundreds of female students at the university by preventing the bomb